Church Of St John

Church of St John, Bemerton

Built between 1859 and 1861 to the designs of T.H. Wyatt, the Church of St John was created as a new parish church to replace the smaller St Andrew's Church in Bemerton. It was funded by the Herberts of Wilton House, with substantial financial support from the 12th Earl of Pembroke and American admirers of George Herbert, the 17th-century poet who had served as rector of Bemerton. The foundation stone was laid on 9 April 1859 by Elizabeth, wife of Sidney, 1st Lord Herbert of Lea, and the church opened in April 1861. The building was restored in 1896 by C.E. Ponting.

The church is constructed of local limestone ashlar and greensand stones, with brown ironstone used for banded voussoirs in the arches. The roofs are covered with red tiles, some with fishscale banding.

The building is designed in 13th-century Gothic style and comprises a four-bay nave with a lean-to north aisle, a two-bay south aisle arranged as a chapel with a western porch, a deep chancel, and a tower on the north side of the chancel with its base serving as a vestry. The tower, though not exceptionally tall, is powerfully designed and rises prominently above the roofline when viewed from the south. Its parapet is decorated with blank trefoil arcading, and the flat top is broken only by a large pinnacle above the north-west stair turret. Each face of the tower contains a Geometrical bell opening of four lights (arranged as two sub-arches) with a foiled rose in bar tracery. Angle buttresses finish with coped gables just below the bell stage. The chancel's east window contains five lancets on ringed shafts, with the centre lancet rising considerably higher than the four equal-height ones flanking it. The remaining windows vary between single lights with cusped trefoil heads and double lights in plate tracery. The south chapel is roofed under two transverse gables, with the attached porch forming a third gable to the west. Between the valleys of these gables, the first two lights of the four-bay clerestory feature alternating trefoils and cusped spheric triangles. The west gable has a central buttress and two equal two-light windows, with a small foiled oculus in a deep moulded frame above the buttress.

The interior retains its original ashlar-faced walls of oolitic limestone, possibly Bath stone. The nave floor is of plain stone, possibly blue lias, while the sanctuary features white marble with black patterned inlay and the chancel is laid with encaustic tiles. A four-bay arcade of two-centred moulded arches opens into the north aisle, with circular piers bearing rich foliate capitals, all different and carved by William Howlitt. A similar two-arch arcade opens into the south chapel. The nave roof is of dark stained timber with arch-braced scissor trusses, while the chancel has a panelled wagon vault. Detached brown marble shafts with shaft-rings stand on either side of the chancel arch; the outer mouldings of the arch continue uninterrupted while capitals apply only to the inner mouldings. A low breast wall stands at the chancel step.

The principal fixtures of the church are exceptionally fine. A good oak reredos of 1896 features a tall centre topped by a segmental pediment with lower rectangular wings. The frame holds gesso and gilded mosaic panels designed and made by Eleanor (Nellie) Warre, the rector's daughter. Below the reredos, the wall behind the altar is completely covered by a wide mural of glass mosaic and gesso depicting a Calvary in a landscape with apple trees, also by Nellie Warre and dated 1896. The stone pulpit dates to 1861 and has panelled sides, a foliate frieze and a figure in a niche. A handsome lectern, presented by Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone, features a brass gabled book rest and shaft on a turned oak base. The font has an octagonal bowl with densely carved relief panels and a central stem surrounded by eight marble legs; part of the old font from St Andrew's is reputedly incorporated, although no visibly older stonework is apparent.

The stained glass is of high quality. The east window, dated 1860, is by O'Connor of London and displays the typically bright palette characteristic of that maker, though it is partly obscured by the reredos. Three grisaille windows by Lavers & Barraud of 1861 are also in the chancel. The north aisle's first window from the east is an early work by C.E. Kempe, dating to 1878, though the right-hand light has been largely lost to vandalism. The south chapel's east window is signed by Heaton, Butler & Bayne and dates to 1902, depicting Faith, Hope and Charity. A matching pair of west windows contains glass by Hardman of Birmingham, 1864. The organ case, probably dating to 1925, is of oak in a vaguely classical style with broad round arches; the mechanism of 1925 was rebuilt in 1965 and 1996. It is mounted on the north chancel wall on large rather coarse brackets. The simply detailed bench pews are undoubtedly original, of red-stained pine on deal platforms, with canted tops and a small sunk trefoil bearing the pew number on each bench end. A brass plaque on the west wall records the dedication of the church in 1861 in memory of Herbert.

The church is set in a broad grassy churchyard with low walls and an oak lych gate serving as a First World War memorial. Opposite to the south stands a small Gothic National School and master's house, also designed by T.H. Wyatt and dating to c. 1869.

Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807–1880) was born in Ireland and trained under Philip Hardwick, the prominent classical and Gothic architect. He became district surveyor for Hackney in 1832 and entered partnership with David Brandon from 1838 to 1851, during which time they built a successful practice designing mansions, churches, schools and parsonages whilst undertaking numerous church restorations. As honorary architect to the Salisbury Diocesan Church Building Society, Wyatt received many commissions throughout the south-west, building or rebuilding at least 16 churches in Wiltshire and restoring approximately 30 more, as well as building four new churches in Dorset and restoring at least 18 there. He was elected president of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1870 and received its Royal Gold Medal three years later. His most celebrated church is Wilton in Wiltshire (1841–5), built for the Earls of Pembroke at a cost of £20,000.